Friday, October 19, 2012

While Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPl) recently won a patent suit against its largest rival, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (LON:BC94), it has lost a case in another part of the world, which could damage its pride more than the patent case would have done.

While losing the patent case could have cost Apple billions in damages, this case could hurt even worse in terms of bruising their pride, and cutting into their market share. Samsung won in a ruling in the U.K., which will require Apple to post ads on its website in the Euro-zone, stating that Samsung did not infringe on the patents listed in the case there.
This blow will definitely damage the iPhone maker's pride, as it will in essence, require Apple to advertise for its biggest competitor in the smartphone market. Samsung will most likely garner a few sales from the ads, and Apple will surely lose some.

However, in light of Apple's past history, I don't foresee any major damage being done to the company's reputation. The item in question for the suit was the Galaxy Tablet, made by Samsung. The judge ruled that Samsung had not copied Apple's designs, and thus the decision to force the iPad maker to run the ads.

Apple is dominating the high end tablet industry, and with the introduction of its iPad mini on the 23rd of this month, it will also cater to the mid to low end market.This market slot is one that as of yet, is previously unexplored by Apple, and if they have half the success they have had in the high end, they will dominate this sector as well.
The upshot of the entire case is that Apple will have to walk away with damaged pride, but in all honesty, with the quality of Apple's products, I seriously doubt any serious financial harm will befall the company.

Apple and Samsung have several open court cases throughout the world, and many analysts believe that Apple is trying to kill two birds with one stone in these cases. Namely, they wish to block Samsung from outselling them in the market, but also, they are using Samsung's mistakes as a way to get at their most bitter rival, Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG).

It's no secret that Apple co-founder, the late Steve Jobs, hated Google with a fiery passion, and he carried that hate with him until the end of his life, in 2011. To put pressure on Google's market share by causing a sales ban of Samsung devices, would surely benefit Apple's share in the smartphone and tablet markets. It will be very interesting to see what will happen in the next few weeks and months, in order to achieve causing Google some extra pain.